Sunday, February 18, 2007

Breaking Scandal

The British pianist Joyce Hatto, who died last year, has become something of a cult figure - I believe I first heard her name on a great pianists mailing list I am a member of. The eminent critic Richard Dyer called her the "greatest pianist no one's ever heard of."

Perhaps not. In a rather fascinating breaking scandal, it seems a number of the recordings issued by the Concert Artist/Fidelio label, which is owned by Hatto's husband, are by other pianists, including Yefim Bronfman and Laszlo Simon. Here are links to relevant articles:
The forger evidently didn't realize that digital recordings encode enough information to allow iTunes to identify the tracks. Ooops!

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